Containers for soft drinks, beer and like beverages currently are being made as glass bottles, plated steel or aluminum cans and polyethylene terephthalate (P.E.T.) bottles. Because of the undesirable impact careless discarding of such types of used containers can have on our environment, much effort and money has been spent in educating the public to exercise good judgment in disposing of these used containers, preferably by way of delivering them to redemption centers where the user can obtain payment for containers having recycle value, e.g., aluminum cans and glass containers. Public response to such effort has not resulted in any meaningful results in terms of lessening the problem presented by uncaring disposal of these types of beverage containers. In consequence, many state and local legislatures have enacted legislation requiring that beverages when sold include a container deposit charged to the purchaser and requiring for redemption, and hence refund of the deposit, that the purchaser return the empty or used container to the center where purchased or other authorized redemption location. In this way, it is expected that the public will be more responsive and cooperative in effecting proper and ecologically sound disposition of these types of containers with commensurate reduction of the blight improper disposal of these containers has presented in the past.
Corollary to this is the problem such mandated practice will present to the neighborhood beverage dealer, supermarket operator and the like who will in many instances be responsible for effecting redemption and ultimate delivery of redeemed containers to recycle sources or approved waste collection operators. The beverage dealer or supermarket operator will have to "cancel" the redeemed or used container by either disintegrating or otherwise deforming it to convenient smaller size to
(a) insure that it can not be redeemed again; and
(b) is reduced to form suited for handling economically in the overall disposal process. To carry out such operation almost all beverage sales outlets will have to employ a machine or container destroying unit of some type. In this respect various types and constructions of bottle breakers and can crushers are known. However, such types of these machines as are known are not particularly suited for use at local sales outlets because they are either too expensive, do not allow for selective collection and destruction of say glass bottles on the one hand, and metallic containers and P.E.T. bottles on the other hand, or are unnecessarily too large and complicated for use in the type of wide spread redemption practice contemplated.